The invention relates to a movable ladder support assembly. More particularly, the invention relates to a ladder support, which has a frame that is capable of supporting a ladder adjacent to a work area, and of allowing the ladder to slide laterally along the work area.
A ladder is a necessary tool in many trades. Any job which requires work to be conducted at an uncomfortable or unreachable height requires that one use a ladder. However, the nature of many of these jobs require that the worker frequently stop working as the work progresses, to climb down the ladder in order to move the ladder laterally along a building or other work area. For example, painters must often use a ladder to reach higher areas of a wall, but must also continuously move the ladder along the wall to complete painting the wall.
Some ladders have provisions for moving along a wall. U.S. Pat. No. 4,232,759 is a mobile ladder which is capable of moving along a wall by means of a track structure that is clamped to the roof. However, Jacobs is a system which requires a pair of tracks to be mounted to the roof, and a third track mounted to the ground. It seems that if these tracks are not carefully aligned when mounted, they can cause the ladder to derail, with disastrous consequences.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,899,847 to Lufkin discloses a mobile support which comprises a pair of rollers that mount in two troughs on the ground, and a third roller which engages the wall. In addition to being problematic to set up, Lufkin is undesirable for applications where it is undesirable to have a roller wheel actually touch the wall, such as while painting the wall.
While these units may be suitable for the particular purpose employed, or for general use, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention as disclosed hereafter.